The PA House is expected to vote on SB 732 TODAY! This is
Pennsylvania's Targeted Regulations on Abortion Providers (TRAP) bill that will
likely shut down many of the 22 stand-alone abortion / reproductive health
clinics in Pennsylvania.
We've Had Enough!
SB 732 passed out of the House Health Committee
in the early summer after being amended to look exactly like HB 574 which had earlier
passed the House. All of the Senate language from the original bill
was stripped out, and the content of HB 574 was substituted. Therefore, SB 732
now applies to all surgical abortion procedures, even very early ones.
It is not limited to abortions after nine weeks. SB 732/HB 574 would regulate Pennsylvania’s freestanding
abortion providers as ambulatory surgical facilities (ASF), subject to both
the ambulatory surgical facility regulations and the ambulatory
gynecological surgery in hospitals and clinics regulations. Instead of
preventing another atrocity like the Gosnell “house of horrors,”this bill will
hurt women.
Senate Bill 732 (SB 732)
SB 732 would force free-standing
abortion providers to be regulated as Ambulatory Surgical Facilities (ASF)
which require burdensome and unnecessary structural and staffing changes.
SB 732 could cause a public health
crisis by making abortion care in Pennsylvania inaccessible.
· ASF regulations could cause the cost of
an abortion to rise significantly and could force providers to close their
doors.
· Women need safe, reputable providers to
trust when seeking an abortion.
More information about HB 574 and SB 732:
· These bills will increase the financial hurdles to abortion
care for patients. Women will not be able to afford
safe abortion care and may seek out a substandard illegal provider or be forced
to delay their abortions while they try to raise money to pay for higher-cost
procedures. The increased costs of complying with these bills will be passed
along to patients. Many patients struggle to pay $350 for an early abortion
procedure. With increased regulation and increased fees, the cost may double
and therefore become inaccessible to many women.
· Poor women and rural women will have even less access to
safe abortion care. Only 22% of PA counties have an
abortion provider. The enactment of either bill would force some of these
providers to close. Women who need abortions will then leave the state where
Pennsylvania can no longer regulate their safety.
· Abortion providers are already well-regulated. Current law provides for required equipment and medical
supplies, hospital transfer agreements for emergency services, equipment
required for anesthesia, clinical staff licensing requirements, mandatory counseling
and informed consent requirements, laboratory and pathology requirements,
required blood tests specific to abortion care, extensive reporting
requirements for each abortion, parental consent requirements, abortion
facility requirements, and complications reporting. Women don’t need more
regulations. They need accessible care and better enforcement of existing
regulations.
More detail and talking points can be found in the pdf file from Pennsylvanians for Choice
(PFC)which is located at our We've Had Enough website.
PFC, fyi, is the statewide reproductive rights coalition working to ensure full
reproductive justice and rights for women here in Pennsylvania.